By Rachel, on March 13th, 2009
 Project Management Workshop At the High Desert Education Service District, we manage multiple, simultaneous projects. They range from special and early childhood education to technology and building projects. Keeping track of promises, timelines, outcomes, and deliverables is overwhelming.
This half-day workshop, scheduled for March 17, provides an introduction to project management, guidelines for each of the stages in a project lifecycle, templates, and resources.
Great inro for newbies and refesher course for experienced managers. Project materials available here.
Tags: high desert esd, project management, workshop
By Rachel, on March 1st, 2009
 Demaris Logging, circa 1910 Crook County, Oregon, was once considered the Ponderosa Pine Capital of the World. Logging, milling, and a growing timber industry helped to build the town of Prineville and sustained it through its first century.
The A.R. Bowman Historical Museum has collected the photos, videos, and stories of the local industry and its personalities. Many of the artifacts are now available in the digital exhibit, Ponderosa Pine Capital of the World.
I designed and set up this exhibit as the final project towards my Masters in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University.
What began as a finite project is quickly morphing into a long-term exploration. The Bowman Museum is an amazing resource. I only scratched the surface of their collection with the dozens of photos, videos, and stories on the site as of today and am looking forward to digging deeper as a volunteer in the coming years.
Tags: bowman museum, crook county, digital collection, logging, timber
By Rachel, on February 15th, 2009
 ball of yarn I gave a five-minute talk on copyright at the inaugural Ignite Bend. The gist of it was that our copyright laws need to evolve. Copyright was originally conceived of to provide protection for authors who were being taken advantage of by unscrupulous publishers (Statute of Anne, 1710). This is a very noble ideal, but many believe we’ve gone too far with recent legislation. We’re also in an era of the remix (Larry Lessig). Lessig’s thoughts on remixing and creative commons have a great analogy in the yarn world.
Artisans create home-spun yarns that, on their own, are amazing artistic creations. But those creations aren’t meant to sit on a shelf. They’re meant to be used, built upon, remixed. The item that results is oftentimes even more beautiful or useful than the raw material (unless it’s one of my failed attempts to knit a sweater).
It seems to me that we could approach copyright with a similar view. I’m all for protecting the rights of content creators and ensuring that they can feed their families. But, some loosening of the derivative works restrictions in current law would benefit both the progress of science and the useful arts (US Constitution).
Watch the Ignite Bend broadcast. See the show notes.
(Thanks to charitygirl for the beautiful ball of yarn. –Creative Commons image via Flickr)
Tags: copyright, creative commons, derivative works, ignite bend, larry lessig, remix, yarn
By Rachel, on April 5th, 2008
 1912 Baseball Photos from the Library of Congress Flickr Project The following is from a series of articles I wrote for the education section of the Central Oregonian.
Lifelong Learning and Lifelong Sharing
It’s the month of April and, at our house, that means it’s the month of running back and forth between the baseball diamonds in town. It’s also the month that the Library of Congress added another batch of historical photos to its Flickr Photo Project, including ones from the 1912 baseball season.
The project is exciting. It not only provides access to great photos from our national history, but also represents the positive, collaborative nature of the Internet. Flickr is a photo-sharing Web site. Anyone can join for free and post photos to share with friends or the general public. More importantly, users can add tags (labels) to photos to help identify and organize them. This is where it intersects with the Library of Congress.
The Library contains over 14 million prints and photos. Many have incomplete or incorrect identifications. To improve those identifications, the Library is seeking public input on approximately 3,000 of the most popular archive photos. Since January 2008, when they began the project with Flickr, the Library has improved dozens of records.
Social tagging and public knowledge projects allow us to learn from and share with each other. And we each have something to contribute. Many of the projects, like the Library of Congress/Flickr Project, involve photos or artwork. The Encyclopedia of Life, however, has the grand ambition of organizing all we know about life on our planet. And the Peer-to-Patent Project assists the backlogged US Patent and Trademark Office by collecting user input on prior inventions.
These specific projects are narrower versions of the general information sharing and organization that is happening in projects like Wikipedia, Del.icio.us, LibraryThing, Mahalo, and Magnolia. Each of these harnesses our collective knowledge: one part subject expert and one part wisdom of crowds.
Crook County students are growing up and learning in this information-sharing environment. They are already contributing to a greater understanding of the world and shaping the future of collaborative learning. We encourage them to share what they know with each other, their teachers, and the world. I encourage you to do the same.
Library of Congress/Flickr Commons
Encyclopedia of Life
Peer-to-Patent
Wikipedia
Delicious
LibraryThing
Mahalo
Here’s a PDF of the original article:
 Tekhne Article 7 - Flickr Commons
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By Rachel, on March 6th, 2008
 Right-Click Magic The following is from a series of articles I wrote for the education section of the Central Oregonian.
The Super-Secret, All-Powerful Right-Click!
We know that, as individuals, we each learn a little bit differently than the next person. Some people learn best by seeing, some by hearing, and others by doing. How we navigate and use our computers is no different. Some users prefer the text menus at the top of a program’s window (File, Edit, View, and so on). Others prefer the tool bars with icons for the functions (the disk icon for “save,” the printer icon for “print,” and so on). And many users prefer keyboard shortcuts (ctrl-c for “copy,” ctrl-v for “paste,” ctrl-x for “cut,” and so on). You get the idea. We’ve got options.
One of those options is the right-click menu.
The Mouse and the Menu
To take advantage of the all-powerful right-click menu, you need a mouse with a right-click button (that’s the one on the right). It’s hard to find a mouse lately without two buttons, so you probably have a right-click button. Most laptops have a right-click button also.
This article will focus on Windows XP, but most of the menu options are consistent regardless of operating system.
On The Desktop
Find an empty space on your computer desktop and right-click. The menu that appears has options for arranging icons; adding new folders and documents; and properties. The two that I use the most are the new folder option and the properties panel, which allows me to change my screen resolution and screensavers without having to crawl through the full control panel.
If you have documents or files on the desktop, you can right-click on them too. For most files, a right-click displays a menu with options for opening the file; copying and deleting; and sending the file to another location. The two best features hidden in this menu are the “send to” (great for sending a photo in email with one click) and the “open with” options.
In Office Programs
The right-click menu provides convenience on the desktop…. In programs, it saves time and effort! In most office programs, the right-click menu contains the cut, copy, and paste functions; formatting menus; and the spell-check, dictionary, thesaurus, and translation options. When you’re a lousy keyboarder, like me, the right-click menu is a blessing for correcting typos and misspellings. Place the cursor over a word with a red squiggly line underneath it. Right-click and choose the correct word or tell the computer to ignore the misspelling.
On the Web
We’ve saved the best for last. When you’re surfing the Internet, the right-click menu has all the secrets: “back” and “refresh” commands that save you from having to drag your mouse up to the tool bar; options to open links in new windows or new tabs; an “add to favorites” shortcut; and, probably the most used, “set as background” and “save picture as” options. (Please be responsible about copyright.)
While the right-click button may not deserve super-hero status, it’s a powerful tool for frequent computer users. And, of course, the best way to figure it out is not to read this article. Boot up the machine and explore!
Here’s a PDF of the original article:
 Tekhne Article 6 - Right-Click
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By Rachel, on January 31st, 2008
 Students and Teachers Learn from Each Other (Crook County Middle School 1:1 Program) The following is from a series of articles I wrote for the education section of the Central Oregonian.
1:1 Learning Program
Last month, Crook County School District completed the final stage of the computer rollout for its 1:1 Learning Program. Sixth-grade students at Paulina Elementary, Powell Butte Elementary, and Crook County Middle School have laptops, one per student, which will be used to enhance their learning in the classroom. The laptops offer a connection to the growing collection of online resources and educational tools that supplement, rather than replace, the traditional curriculum.
Software Resources
District staff has spent the past year evaluating software and resources for the 1:1 classrooms. Most of the resources and tools are free and can be used by home users, as well. These are the best of the batch:
Google Earth – earth.google.com
Google Earth is the free geographic suite that allows you to fly around the digital globe and zoom in on areas of interest. Students can search for and view satellite images of countries, landmarks, and topographical features.
Google Picasa – picasa.google.com
Picasa is photo editing and organization software. It has many of the same features as Photoshop Elements or other commercial photo programs. It also allows you to share your photos online.
iTunes – www.apple.com/itunes/
iTunes is the digital media player that most people associate with iPods and 99-cent music downloads. In the classroom, it becomes a powerful resource because of the number of educational podcasts available for download. Podcasts are essentially audio or video shows that are delivered via the Internet.
Microsoft PhotoStory – www.microsoft.com
PhotoStory is a free slideshow creation program. With it, students can create presentations with narration, music, and special effects.
Open Office – www.openoffice.org
OpenOffice is an office software suite very similar to Microsoft Office. The suite includes word processor, spreadsheet, database, drawing, presentation and equation writer programs. It is free and can be downloaded from the project Web site.
Web Resources
In addition to software, teachers and students will be accessing a variety of Web sites and podcasts as part of their lessons. Again, here are the best:
The Library of Congress – www.loc.gov
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, as well as the collector of the American culture and history. The library’s Web site includes online exhibits and collections, Webcasts, podcasts, newsletters, and guides for teachers and families.
NASA – www.nasa.gov
NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has one of the largest Web sites in terms of number of pages and amount of content. It is also one of the best. It is loaded with historical documents, video, and images from decades of space exploration. It houses up-to-the-minute resources, as well, including the most recent, exciting batch of images of Mercury from the spacecraft Messenger.
The National Archives – www.archives.org
The National Archives is the storage center for documentation of our nation’s history and citizens. Millions of visitors visit the site each month for access to military records, genealogical and family histories, and historical documents (like images of the original Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, and the Zimmerman Telegram).
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry – www.omsi.org
In addition to online exhibits and activities, the OMSI Web site has links to live Web cams, a great series of podcasts, and learning resources for all ages.
These software tools and Web sites represent the positive impact of technology on our lives. Whether we’re sixth-graders or sixty-year-olds, they offer us each the ability to continue life-long learning right from our corner of the high desert.
Here’s a PDF of the original article:
 Tekhne Article 5 - Resources
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By Rachel, on January 3rd, 2008
 Fishing at the Reservoir (photo credit: me) The following is from a series of articles I wrote for the education section of the Central Oregonian.
Phishing and more…
Happy New Year! Readers have emailed in the past months with various technology questions. Here are three good ones to share:
1. My daughter and I have a question about ‘phishing.’ What is it and how is it different from spam?
Phishing is the term used for a fraudulent attempt to gather personal or financial information using electronic means. The attempt may be made by email. Some are easy to spot (like the Nigerian man who wants to send you $150,000 if you’ll just provide your bank account number). Some attempts are more sophisticated and include realistic logos and Web addresses. The senders will usually try to get you to provide your social security number, bank account info, or passwords. They will pose as your bank, an attorney, the IRS, or a similar authority and try to convince you that you need to verify personal information online.
The attempt to get your personal information is what makes phishing different from spam. Spam is simply unsolicited or unwanted email. Junk mail. A good way to remember the difference is that phishing is like fishing: trying to catch something.
A final caution about phishing is that it is not only attempted via email. The attempts can also be made through instant messaging or even by phone. The best thing to do in any of these cases is to NOT provide sensitive information or click on unknown links. If you feel that the message may be legitimate, contact the institution for verification.
2. I know about .com and .org Web sites, but the other day I saw a commercial with a Web site that ended with .mobi. Please explain.
The final letters of a Web address indicate the site’s domain. Currently, there are two main divisions – generic and country code. Domains like .com, .org, .edu, .mil, .gov, and .mobi are generic domains. Domains like .us (United States), .br (Brazil), .eu (European Union), .cn (China), and so on, are country code domains. With some exceptions and restrictions, the generic domains are available for public use. Here’s a list of the most popular and their intended uses:
.com – commercial, for business or general use
.org – organization, for non-profits or associations
.net – network, for businesses or resources related to Internet infrastructure
.info – information, for information-rich Web sites
.mobi – mobile, for sites designed for mobile browsers (PDAs, phones, etc.)
.edu – education, restricted to accredited universities or colleges
.gov – government, restricted to US government agencies
.mil – military, restricted to US military use (Department of Defense)
3. When is it okay to use all-caps in email messages? (I heard someone joking about it the other day and I don’t understand why.)
It’s generally never a good idea to use all-caps in an email message. First, in email, typing a message in all-caps is considered shouting. Second, all-caps is harder to read. (Notice that most newspapers don’t use all-caps for the text of articles.) So, save the caps for emphasis and use them sparingly; you’ll make your messages easier on the eyes and when you DO have an important point, the capitals will make it stand out.
Continue to send in your questions!
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By Rachel, on November 7th, 2007
 Safari (photo credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Maartje van Caspel) The following is from a series of articles I wrote for the education section of the Central Oregonian.
9,000,000,000 results match your search!
So, let’s start with a quick recap of last month’s startling figure: the World Wide Web now contains over 100 million active Web sites. That translates to hundreds of billions of pages which, unfortunately, are not organized very well, as of yet. The Internet doesn’t have a card catalogue organized by subject, title, and author. And, for the most part, it doesn’t have a staff of friendly librarians waiting to assist us in our searches. (Note that in Oregon we have access to L-net, a free, online reference service staffed by librarians.)
What the Internet does have is online search engines. We can visit Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com, or similar sites to retrieve information. This works fairly well for most general searches. We can find commercial sites, government sites, and education sites with usually just one search term or keyword. But, let’s say we’re interested in our local juniper (the plant, tree, or shrub).
A Google search for the keyword, juniper, returns 1,650,000 results. Of the first ten results, only one matches our original intent: a Wikipedia entry for juniper, the plant. One is related to the juniper berry. And the remaining eight are matches for products or services (and a Celtic band!) with Juniper in the name. We can see this is not an efficient search in the first ten results. So, let’s talk about some tips and tricks to search smarter, not harder:
1. Recognize the ads.
While this is not a tip for narrowing results, it takes the place of highest priority on this list. The major search engines rely on advertisers to foot the bill of providing free access to the public. On each search results page, pay attention to the areas dedicated to “sponsored results.” Usually these appear at the top or right of the page. If we want to buy juniper, then we’re in luck and can click away on those results. If, however, we want to research juniper, we should focus on the non-ad results.
2. Be as specific as possible.
This is an easy one. If we want to research the impact of juniper overgrowth in our state, we should use those terms: juniper overgrowth Oregon. If we are looking for ratings on a Nikon Coolpix digital camera, it’s the same principle. Use as many specific terms as possible: Nikon Coolpix digital camera ratings.
3. Use quotation marks, when appropriate.
The major search engines insert the word and in between each of our search terms. This is usually a good thing and a time-saver. They search for pages or sites that contain all of our terms. Sometimes, however, we want a specific result. Back to our juniper example…if we search for “juniper overgrowth” Oregon, the results returned should include the exact phrase, juniper overgrowth. With this Google search, we have now narrowed our list of results to three. Three! Much more manageable. (Tip highlight: quotation marks are especially helpful when searching for a person – enclose the first and last name in quotation marks.)
4. Accept help.
On the search results page, pay attention to the helpful hints provided by the site. If we misspelled our word, we can accept the recommended spelling. Or we can narrow our search by subject. One of the subject options on our original juniper search was “juniper shrub” or “juniper tree.” We can narrow our search results with one click.
5. Explore the advanced search and category search options.
Each of the four major search engines offers an advanced search feature. Advanced search is invaluable for specific research. We can limit our domain extensions (e.g., searching only .edu sites for research publications). Or we can narrow our search by format (e.g., finding only results in .pdf format).
In addition to Advanced Search, the big four also offer search categories. If we know that we are looking for a photo of a juniper tree, we can limit our search to images. Or we can choose news articles or blog entries about juniper. We can search stock quotes, if we are interested in one of the corporate Junipers. Or even audio or video, if we are really looking for a performance from that Celtic band, Juniper. Advanced search and category search are available as options on each site’s home page.
These are just the beginning steps for smarter searches. We’ll touch on more advanced tips later in the year. Until then, smart searching!
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By Rachel, on October 17th, 2007
 RSS Icon The following is from a series of articles I wrote for the education section of the Central Oregonian.
RSS – Bring a World of Information to Your Desktop
The maturing World Wide Web is changing the way we interact and learn. It is also challenging our television culture of the last five decades and changing the way that we seek and find news.
To that end, the Web now contains over 100 million Web sites and 15 million blogs. Over eighty-five percent of organizations have Web pages. And nearly every news source in the world posts content online, including this newspaper.
Really Simple Syndication
I have many interests that are represented within those 100 million sites: parenting, information management, education, recipes, knitting, sports, hiking, biking, business news, world news, and so on…. At last count, I had 73 news sources bookmarked in my Web browser. Even on my best days of time management (which come around about twice a year), I have no hope of tracking each of those sources and the valuable information that they provide.
Last month, I wrote that the goal of this column is to share some of the technology tools that complement, not complicate, our lives. One of the best is a tool called RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. I’m not going to prattle on about the technical specifications, because what is important for this column is that it takes a task that would take hours and reduces it to ten minutes. And it allows us the luxury of staying informed about our various interests while having time left over to play with our kids or enjoy a beautiful sunset.
RSS is an automated method of tracking the new content on those 73 Web sites that I have bookmarked. I don’t have to visit each of them individually to check for new content; instead, I scroll through a list of headlines and summaries that were delivered to my RSS reader. I can click on the headlines that interest me to read the full articles and ignore the ones that don’t fit the day’s interests or time limitations. So, you’re intrigued now and want to know how to do this on your own computer, right? As the saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Here’s a quick list:
Feed Reader or Aggregator
Readers, or aggregators, were the first method for tracking syndicated content (those news articles that you choose to have delivered to you). The two most popular readers are Bloglines and Google Reader.
After you register an account and add your headlines, you can access your page from anywhere you have Internet access.
Personalized Home Page
Over the past year, most of our favorite home pages have added the ability to personalize content. Again, some of the most popular are iGoogle, My Yahoo!, and My MSN.
These home pages are similar to feed readers, but they offer you the option of adding more than just RSS feeds or headlines: local weather, local movie showtimes, sports scoreboards, stock tickers. As with readers, you can access your home page from any computer or mobile device with Internet access.
Web Browsers
The latest releases of the major Web browsers include built-in RSS feed readers. Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 2+, and Safari 2+ are the most popular.
The RSS Feeds that you add to your browser are located on your local computer, so you lose some transportability if that computer is on your desktop at home. However, for ease and speed of use, browser readers are the friendliest, as you don’t have to visit a Web site to view your headlines.
Adding Sources
Once you have decided on your method for pulling headlines or news content to your computer, adding sources is easy. Almost all Web sites that add content regularly offer RSS. Look for a small icon like the one above. Most sites use the conventional orange icon.
Once you click on the icon, a text page of the site’s headlines appears. This page can be added to the favorites or live bookmarks in your Web browser (check the help menu for step-by-step instructions). In Bloglines, Google Reader, or personalized home pages you can use the RSS icon or you can add sites directly (again, check the help menu for specific instructions).
Each time you visit your page or click on your feeds in your browser, a list of the latest headlines appears. You can still visit the originating sites with the click of a button, but you’ve saved hours in monitoring each one manually!
Collecting Versus Searching
So, we can use RSS to harness some of the informational power of the Web, and it’s a useful tool to combat information overload. But, there are still many times when we have to search for information. We’ll tackle Google and its brethren next month—there are some simple tricks and tips that can help us narrow that set of 13 billion search results to a much more manageable, much more relevant set. Until then, happy surfing!
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By Rachel, on September 5th, 2007
 Hay Baler, circa 1944 The following is from a series of articles I wrote for the education section of the Central Oregonian.
From Tekhnē to Technology….
Quick! What’s the definition of the word technology? How many of our immediate responses included a reference to machines or computer systems? iPod? Cell phone? Internet? Okay. Now, how many of us thought wheel? Railroad? Hay baler? Art?
I have to admit, I was in the first group – if you hear me say the word technology, it’s a safe bet that I’m talking computers or networks. So, as I sat down to write this article, I needed to do some research on the history and meaning of the word technology. I logged into the Oxford English Dictionary, the granddaddy of all language resources, and had to read the definition three times before I could believe my eyes.
Technology: A discourse or treatise on an art or arts; the scientific study of the practical or industrial arts.
The root of our modern word technology has descended from the Greek word tekhnē, which means art, craft, or skill. Great, now I have to do some more research because when I hear or read the word art, I think of paintings, sculpture, music, film and so on. I do not think of motherboards and routers, software programs and Web sites. And I certainly do not cuss at the annual Nutcracker performance (even in its off-years) like I do at my computer when it freezes.
The word art, as you may have guessed, has meanings too numerous to reproduce here, so I chose one that fits nicely with our topic.
Art: A practical application of any science; a body or system of rules serving to facilitate the carrying out of certain principles. In this sense often contrasted with science.
I especially liked the 19th century observation of Scottish economist John R. McCulloch, included alongside the OED’s definition, “Agriculture is little known as a science in any part of America, and but imperfectly understood as an art.” Aha – now it’s starting to make sense. Technology, like perhaps our earlier agriculture, is an art, but we’ve forgotten that somewhere along the way. Or, at least I have. There are too many computer systems and languages, too many new, great, must-have gadgets, too many Web sites to track and online services to subscribe to.
I want to be good at my job, which involves technology; I want to be a productive local and global citizen, which involves technology; I want to be able to communicate with and understand my sons when they are old enough to run circles around me on computers, cell phones, and video game systems, which involves technology. But I also want to have time enough left over to enjoy the outdoors, goof off with my family, read a great novel and try new BBQ recipes.
So the future of this column will be dedicated to just that – technology as an art that complements our lives, not complicates them (remember the phrase practical application from the definition of art?). I’ll wade through the hundreds of tips, tricks, processes, and gadgets to find the best ones to share. The ones that stick; the ones that are simple; the ones that are enjoyable. Artful Technology.
And, together, maybe we can weave technology into our lives in a manner that approaches one of the other definitions of the word art.
Art: A pursuit or occupation in which skill is directed towards the gratification of taste or production of what is beautiful.
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